And that leads me to say a few words of this young gentleman, who made that audacious movement lately which I chronicled in my last record,--jumping over the seats of I don't know how many boarders to put himself in the place which the Little Gentleman's absence had left vacant at the side of Iris. When a young man is found habitually at the side of any one given young lady,--when he lingers where she stays, and hastens when she leaves,--when his eyes follow her as she moves, and rest upon her when she is still,--when he begins to grow a little timid, he who was so bold, and a little pensive, he who was so gay, whenever accident finds them alone,--when he thinks very often of the given young lady, and names her very seldom,---- What do you say about it, my charming young expert in that sweet science in which, perhaps, a long experience is not the first of qualifications? ----But we don't know anything about this young man, except that he is good-looking, and somewhat high-spirited, and strong-limbed, and has a generous style of nature,--all very promising, but by no means proving that he is a proper lover for Iris, whose heart we turned inside out when we opened that sealed book of hers. Ah, my dear young friend! When your mamma--then, if you will believe it, a very slight young lady, with very pretty hair and figure--came and told _her_ mamma that your papa had--had--asked----No, no, no! she couldn't say it; but her mother--oh, the depth of maternal sagacity!--guessed it all without another word!--When your mother, I say, came and told her mother she was _engaged_, and your grandmother told your grandfather, how much did they know of the intimate nature of the young gentleman to whom she had pledged her existence? I will not be so hard as to ask how much your respected mamma knew at that time of the intimate nature of your respected papa, though, if we should compare a young girl's _man-as-she-thinks-him_ with a forty-summered matron's _man-as-she-finds-him_, I have my doubts as to whether the second would be a fac-simile of the first in most cases.